On Aug. 9, 2005, the present applicant obtained an Italian patent for industrial invention, no. 1,329,172, relating to a “Method and Apparatus for Packaging Mattresses”.
The above-mentioned patent concerns mattresses already inserted in corresponding enveloping bags, which are supplied to a press with the open side of the bag facing upstream, and are there subjected to a compressing action which reduces the thickness thereof.
At the end of the compressing action, a welding bar is activated to stably join the flaps of the bag about the mattress, thus preventing the mattress from newly expanding after the press is re-opened.
The bag is advantageously of a size such that posteriorly of the welding there remains a length, or “tail” which is destined to receive, at the transversal end edge, a strip of adhesive tape, which at the end of the rolling process will stabilize the spiral configuration of the mattress.
The apparatus of the above-cited patent advantageously exhibits a spiral-rolling station which comprises two half-shells, of which one is fixed and the other is hinged thereto, such as to be able to open inferiorly in order to enable the completed package to be unloaded.
A first operating limit of the above technical solution relates to the fact that the apparatus can only roll mattresses inserted in bags, and the bags must be of a suitable length to enable stabilization, using adhesive tape, of the above-mentioned spiral-rolled configurations.
Further, the above-described apparatus is conformed such that the external diameter of the roll obtained is fixed, independently of the thickness of the mattress.
In other words, a smaller spiral cannot be obtained to reduce overall packaged size, when the thickness of the mattress would permit such a reduction, and vice versa.